Heart Attack/Emergency Care

The Clinical Cardiology Section at Stony Brook Medicine provides a 24-hour, 7-day-per-week consultative service that focuses on compassionate care and the use of state-of-the-art diagnostic and treatment tools. We see patients in the hospital with all heart-related concerns, including many patients who were admitted for other reasons and develop cardiac symptoms.

Stony Brook Medicine is prepared to treat you should you experience a heart attack. Our state-of-the-art facility is equipped with all of the necessary tools to ensure a safe and rapid recovery, and our physicians, surgeons, and nurses are a highly trained, caring group of people. We understand that during emergency situations, the difference between life and death can be mere seconds, as "time is muscle" when it comes to the heart. This is particularly true for one of the most common conditions we see in our emergency section: heart attack or acute myocardial infarction (MI). Our Team has greatly improved triage and treatment times for MI patients through our "Code H" program, by upgrading our equipment and streamlining our processes. We are sharing this successful program by collaborating with other Suffolk County hospitals to facilitate rapid transfer of heart attack patients from their emergency sections to Stony Brook Medicine for emergency treatment.

What is a heart attack?

A heart attack occurs when an area of the heart muscle dies or is permanently damaged because of inadequate oxygen supply. This lack of oxygen is most frequently caused when a plaque — fatty, fibrous tissue — ruptures or tears, which stimulates the clotting of blood at the site that blocks the flow of blood to the downstream heart muscle. Immediate attention is necessary; the faster the artery can be opened, the less damage to the muscle and the more quickly the heart can recover. The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recommend opening the blockage in 90 minutes or less (called door-to-balloon time, which spans arrival at the hospital until the blockage is cleared). Stony Brook Medicine has achieved an average time of 71 minutes, well below this target.

Living a healthy lifestyle that includes regular physical activity, a balanced diet and manageable stress levels can help reduce your risk of heart attack.

Heart attack symptoms vary from mild to severe, and may include:

Chest pain or radiating pain in the arm

Back or jaw pain (more common in women)

Indigestion

Shortness of breath

Coughing

Anxiety or racing heart

Nausea

Vomiting

Dizziness or lightheadedness

Many people are unaware that women can have a very different experience than men, and that heart disease is the number one killer of women. Unlike men, when women have angina, the chest pain that occurs when not enough oxygen reaches the heart muscle because of narrowed or blocked arteries, they tend to feel a hot or burning sensation and their back, shoulders, arm, or jaw may be tender to the touch. During a heart attack, they often experience nausea, vomiting, indigestion, shortness of breath, anxiety, unusual fatigue, a cold sweat, weakness or an irregular heartbeat. Women are more likely to minimize their symptoms as well, which can lead to risky situations.

If you think you or someone you know is experiencing a heart attack, call 9-1-1 immediately.

Services

Our services are designed to confirm that you are having a heart attack and, if so, treat it immediately. Electrocardiography and echocardiography are very useful initial diagnostic tools.

Electrocardiography. Electrocardiography is a tool that tracks the electrical impulses of the heart. Electrodes are placed on your chest and are then attached to a computer console. At Stony Brook, we typically complete this test within five minutes of patient arrival; and

Echocardiography. Echocardiography is an imaging tool that uses sound waves to create a moving picture of the heart; it allows us to assess the strength and function of your heartbeat.

We offer the following services to treat heart attack:

Balloon angioplasty. During cardiac catheterization, we insert a balloon-tipped catheter into the blocked artery. We gently inflate it to compress the blockage against the wall of the artery to open it up;

Stent placement. We often insert a wire mesh tube called a stent after we perform balloon angioplasty. The stent helps keep the artery open in the future; and

Bypass surgery. In other cases, cardiac surgery may be the best treatment plan. We can re-route blood flow around a blockage, which increases healthy flow to the heart. Usually, a blood vessel from the leg or chest is used to bypass the blocked heart artery.

Our Team

Our team of dedicated nurses, cardiologists, and cardiac surgeons is known for high-quality care in a comfortable, compassionate environment. Always seeking excellence, we were the ones to create and implement the highly successful Code H protocol, which placed us as a leader in heart attack care in Long Island. We value strong relationships with our patients and their families, and encourage open communication between all parties. Our values include effectiveness, safety, and compassion, and we are able to meet our standards in a facility equipped with state-of-the-art resources.

Our team includes:

Joseph Z. Chernilas, MD

William E. Lawson, MD, FACP, FACC, FSCAI

Anil Mani, MD, FACC

The Stony Brook Difference

Stony Brook Medicine is equipped with the state-of-the art tools and equipment necessary to treat all heart disease, heart attacks, and emergency situations. Our cardiothoracic surgeons perform the only heart surgery in Suffolk County and we are the region's only catheterization facility that has on-site cardiothoracic surgery. If you are having a heart attack, you will be taken directly to the catheterization laboratory for angioplasty to restore blood flow. A special elevator can transfer a patient directly from the lab to the operating room, if required. At an average of 71 minutes, our door-to-balloon time is nearly 20 minutes less than the 90-minute standard set by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. The Code H protocol that helped us achieve these results has now established us as the area's primary destination for emergency heart procedures.